The banking group said restructuring efforts on a number of fronts are beginning to reap rewards.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, which has moved to spin off a number of its business lines in recent months amid a restructuring move, has reported a statutory profit after tax for the full year ending September 2017 of A$6.41 billion ($4.94 billion), up 12 per cent on a year earlier.

The bank also announced that its buffer capital, as measured by the Common Equity Tier 1 approach under international banking stands, had increased to 10.6 per cent, up 96 basis points.

ANZ’s return on equity increased by 159 bps to 11.9 per cent, an outcome that will cheer chief executive Shayne Elliott, who has enacted a set of major changes at the banking group over the past year. The bank last October sold its Asian wealth management and retail banking arms to Singapore-listed DBS, joining a number of other lenders taking this route. In a more recent move, ANZ this month said it was selling OnePath pensions and investment business, and certain other aligned dealer groups, to IOOF Holdings for A$975 million ($762.9 million) in cash. The banking group will enter a 20-year strategic alliance to make IOOF superannuation and investment products available to ANZ clients. 

“Two years ago it was clear we needed to reshape ANZ’s future. Although we had a strong business, the external environment was changing faster than we were and our customers, the community and our shareholders expected much more from us,” Elliott said in a statement. “We have made some difficult calls in that time and the new shape of ANZ is now emerging. We’ve shifted our capital base to give greater emphasis to the retail and commercial businesses in Australia and New Zealand which now accounts for 53 per cent of our capital, up from 44 per cent two years ago,” he added.